"Hunt determined to steal Labour’s clothes with his Red Tory Budget

Distinct lack of Right-wing Conservative support for Chancellor’s measures is deafening"

Telegraph: 6th March 2024: Camilla Tominey [Associate Editor] considers how various parts of the Conservative Party received Jeremy Hunt's Spring Budget

"...With Brexit now done and dusted, a tug-of-war continues to be waged between so-called Red Tories and their more Thatcherite colleagues. Wednesday’s make-or-break Budget confirmed beyond reasonable doubt on which side of the ideological fence Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor reside. In unveiling an unashamedly centrist set of proposals designed to out-Labour the opposition, Jeremy Hunt presented the electorate with a Gordon Brown Budget rather than a Nigel Lawson one... [Newsdesk - see Jacob Rees-Mogg's plea for a Lawson budget here] 

... At 27 points behind Labour, according to the latest Ipsos Mori poll, Tories had been crying out for tax cuts. Instead, these were reserved for the Lefty “luvvies” of the creative industries, while those with second homes (also known as Conservative voters) saw their furnished holiday lettings tax regime abolished along with non-dom status...

Naturally, the One Nationers welcomed the Budget with open arms, praising the Chancellor for his “compassion” in “providing clarity on our childcare plans” and investing “in the future of our public services”. Yet the distinct lack of Right-wing support was deafening. Those hoping for a Budget they could sell on the doorstep to rival Reform’s true blue manifesto will now seemingly have to settle for a long-term “growth” budget that will only result in 1.7 per cent growth come 2028/29, according to the gloomy Office for Budget Responsibility...

The Conservatives’ new campaign slogan appears to be: “We might be poor, but Labour will be even worse”. The trouble for the Tories is that that is not fighting an election from the centre ground – but from underground, dead and buried."

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